Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway is coming to President Donald Trump’s defense on his move regarding the citizenship question and the 2020 census.

After pushing to get a question on citizenship onto the 2020 census, the president announced on Thursday that he would not make an executive order. Instead, he requested information on the number of citizens and non-citizens from every government agency to be sent to the Department of Commerce, as IJR News reported. The Supreme Court blocked Trump’s initial request at the end of June.

“We are not backing down on our effort to determine the citizenship status of the United States population,” the president said.

Conway told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday that Trump “didn’t cave” on adding the citizenship question, but “he’s finding other means to gather the information seeing that it was tied up in meritless litigation.”

“This information is important for any number of public policy issues,” Conway said, adding, “I take objection to those who are screaming as they usually do that you are deterring people from being in the census, from complying in the census.”

The counselor to the president continued to knock those who are “[playing] lawyers and constitutional experts on T.V.” and aren’t “closely” reading Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion from the Supreme Court:

“He didn’t raise a legal and constitutional impediment to this exercise, this inclusion of the question. He just didn’t like the rational. And basically was leaving an opening and the Department of Justice was just trying to walk through that. But time is of the essence and there are different ways to gather this information and this administration will.”

Watch Conway’s interview below:

Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates were quick to blast the president over the citizenship question, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who called it a “clear defeat” for Trump.

“This is yet another one of his boasting and braggadociousness and now he’s failed and trying to make the best of it,” Booker said.

Mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg said Trump’s “tinkering with the census was clearly racially and politically motivated.” He added that it was “good news” the president was apparently “backing down.”

“Wow, he’s going to follow the law?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded to Trump’s move, suggesting that it’s “just about trying to stir up more hate.”

On the other hand, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) declared that he is “supportive of having the citizenship question on the census.”

Additionally, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) previously said it was “common sense” to add the question and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) backed the president on it.

When it comes to the American people, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, released on July 2, 67% of Americans believe that the citizenship question should be asked on the 2020 census.